Chapter Text
She extended her mind to him. “I apologise for her, she’s a bit bored down here in the hall.”
“She is fine. I do not mind sharing my food. I am not really hungry.”
“Careful, if you share with her you’ll end up sharing with all of my fair. Twenty seven in all.”
“Twenty seven? Really? The Weyrleader is looking for Firelizard eggs. If you find more, let us know. I am Monarth, T’gellan’s bronze. Who are you?” The words were accompanied with a mental image of Monarth, a bronze, and his rider T’gellan.
“Menolly.” She sent him a mental representation of her.
“Monarth, remind me to not let S’van trade duties with me. I would have preferred Watch duty to this. The Sea Holder here is so uptight.”
Menolly blinked slightly at the new voice, almost on reflex adding, “Tell me about it. You think he’s bad now, just try living with him.”
There was mental silence for a moment. “Who is this?”
“That’s the Dragon Singer. She has many Firelizards.”
“Dragon Singer?” T’gellan asked.
“I suppose I am.” Menolly smiled at the name, for she did have a lot of Firelizards and she did love to sing, which she kind of conveyed in the mental image of her she sent Monarth.
“How unusual... Dragons don’t normally speak with anyone and even when they do they use a generic term... they only give nicknames to the people they actually like.”
Menolly grinned, showing her happiness across their connexion. “Well then, I thank you for the honour, Monarth.”
“You are interesting.”
Menolly snapped back to attention as Old Uncle opened his mouth to shout something to the Harper only for Menolly to shove a Seaweed ball into his mouth.
“Have you ever been searched?”
“No one get’s searched in Half-Circle Sea Hold.”
“But still, would you like to come to the Weyr? At least to visit, the Dragons would like that.”
“I would like it very much, Dragon Singer.”
Menolly bit her lip slightly. “Perhaps one day. For now I have my duties to my Hold and family.”
“I await the day you accept my invitation, Dragon Singer. I’m sure Monarth will keep an ear out for you.”
Menolly grinned despite herself and sent her thanks across the connection, backing off again as Old Uncle finished his Seaweed ball. She turned her attention towards Harper Elgion, who was now playing a lovely tune and paled when she realised he was being accompanied by her firelizards. She quickly shushed them but noticed Elgion looking up at the ceiling, frowning slightly as he played. They hadn’t been too loud but a keen ear like a Harper would have been able to hear them easily.
She sent them another reprimand and shooed them off to the cave. They left with a tiny bit of grumbling but thankfully the sound was covered by the hall’s applause at the end of the song. The rest of the evening passed pleasantly until she ran out of seaweed balls for Old Uncle. Typical Sella, not giving her enough to last the evening.
She escorted the Old Man from the Hall before he could disgrace her and led him up to bed. “Come now Old Uncle, if you stay up much longer you won’t be able to sleep tonight and you’ll get up late tomorrow. It’ll have you sleeping at odd times all week. Now come along.”
.oOo.
T’gellan frowned at the conversation he’d had with Dragon Singer. She was unusual and he didn’t lie that dragons never named anyone. If they had to talk about someone who wasn’t a Dragonrider they called them by title or occupation, things like Holder, Harper, Healer. Never by name, and even those who were called by name impressed at the next hatching, according to the records. Some people were given a nickname. It meant that the dragons would remember them. Dragons notoriously had a terrible memory and would forget things only days after they’d happened. For them to remember someone was...
“Everything alright, Dragonrider?”
T’gellan forced a smile to his face and turned to face Sea Holder Yanus. “Yes, of course. I was simply talking to Monarth, he’s sensed someone of interest in the hold.”
“A future rider?” Mavi asked, leaning forward slightly.
“Ah, from what I gather she has no interest in being a rider but she definitely interests Monarth.”
“She?” Yanus asked. “Girls can’t be Dragonriders. Except for Queen riders of course.”
T’gellan raised an eyebrow. “Not so. In the records there are plenty of female riders mentioned. They ride Greens and Queens. The men fly Bronze, Brown and Blue.”
Yanus frowned. “It’s not right that women should try to be Dragonriders. Leave it up to the men, send them off to the kitchens and other work.” He crossed his arms and nodded as if he was imparting some great knowledge.
Elgion frowned. “I know plenty of girls who would be good Harpers, just as I’m sure there are plenty of women who would be good Dragonriders, or fishermen, or crafters of any kind. You shouldn’t speak so poorly of women.”
Yanus scowled. “Girls can’t be Harpers and they most certainly cannot be fishermen! Not in this Hold or any other!”
T’gellan frowned again. “How you run your Hold is up to you but I don’t really think you can say anything for the other Holds, and you certainly cannot speak for the Weyr.”
Yanus growled and Elgion gave a kind of nervous chuckle. “Hey now, enough arguing.” He struck up a new tune. “This should be a time for merriment, not such serious conversations.” He looked really uncomfortable.
T’gellan stood up. “Regardless, I should get back to the Weyr, I should have been back hours ago. It was very nice of you to invite me to dinner, Sea Holder, and the meal was lovely.”
Yanus gave a very strained smiled. “It was an honour to have you here, Bronzerider. We do hope you come and visit again.”
T’gellan nodded. “I’m sure I will. Monarth seems very interested in this girl so I’m sure he will want to come back.” “Monarth, send word to the Weyr to keep an eye on Half-Circle Sea Hold. I fear our Dragon Singer may be mistreated here and until I can persuade her to come to the Weyr we’ll have to be careful.”
“I have told. They will help.”
.oOo.
Menolly scowled as she helped gut the fish from the haul. How she detested packtails. They tasted great but they were the worst to work with. Mavi was keeping her busy every second of the day now, far away from Elgion. The past few weeks have been rather exiting. She spent as much time out of the hold as possible and found a couple of Firelizard clutches while she was looking for grasses. One of them was a Queens nest but the others were greens and had been abandoned.
Monarth had told her that the Weyrleader was looking for Firelizard Clutches and she’d sent a mental picture via one of her fair and hidden, watching as a Rider appeared and collected the eggs. They knew she was there but they couldn’t see her, hidden as she was in cliff caves.
T’gellan collected the first clutch. “You know, you are wasted in a Hold. The other riders agree. The dragons don’t stop talking about you, Dragon Singer. If you want to come to the Weyr, Ramoth’s Clutch is going to hatch soon. You could at least visit for the Hatching!”
“Perhaps, Bronzerider.” She conveyed mentally to which he laughed and climbed back onto Monarth, disappearing Between with the Firelizard clutch safely in a set of bags.
The second clutch was collected by a Brownrider. “So, T’gellan said he’s invited you to the Hatching. You should come. The dragons are all exited to meet you. They don’t get excited about many people. You would make a good rider.”
“I don’t really want to be a Dragonrider. I do love dragons but the duties of a rider just aren’t my thing. I’m more or a Harper.”
The rider looked around, trying to see her, clearly surprised she could speak to him with her mind. “Well, you wouldn’t be the first Harper who was also a Dragonrider. The Weyrs need Harpers too.”
The Third clutch was collected by T’gellan again. “You would not believe the fuss people are making over who gets to come and collect the Clutches you find. Three in so short a space of time? That’s more than anyone else since we discovered the little blighters. They Weyr leader eventually had to step in and sent me before a fight broke out. And everyone wants to see for themselves the Dragon Singer, the girl who can talk like a dragon.”
“You could too if you tried. Just reach your mind out to someone like you would with your dragon. It’s not hard.”
T’gellan snorted. “I’ll take your word for it, and surely I’ll try. But I’m not expecting much success.”
“If you think you can’t do it, you won’t be able to. Your mind creates its own limitations. You can think to your dragon fine, and Monarth can bespeak any other dragon. Your minds are linked so it would stand to reason that you can do it too, just as my Firelizards let me do it.”
“Pretty wise words. Alright. I’ll keep an open mind. So, are you coming to the Hatching?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Stubborn girl.” He grinned as he spoke, taking the edge off his words.
“I found a Queens clutch, but she won’t even let my Fair close, let alone me. If the tide rises her clutch will be in danger and will let us close to the eggs then, just to get them to safety, but until then, we can’t go near.”
“Well, thanks for the heads up. We’ll keep an ear out for your call.”
Menolly watched him vanish and climbed out of the cliff cave. She’d found loads of them and had been widening the openings, making them easy escape points should she ever get caught out during threadfall. She had been delighted to find out that the caves near her original one all interconnected inside and with a few holes poked in the Cliffside it made a good underground cavern system, at least where she could see.
Menolly was shocked back into focus as the knife in her hand slipped and she cut a gash into her hand. “Shards!” she dropped both the fish she was gutting and the knife she was holding and put everything she had into keeping her Firelizards in the cave.
“Oh Menolly, what have you done now?” Sella stomped over and dragged Menolly away. “Mavi! Mavi!”
Menolly glance up at the Brown dragon circling the hold, who suddenly vanished Between. She felt his mind leave and realised he’d been watching her without her noticing, just how distracted was she today? She was dragged all the way up to her rooms where Mavi set to work on her hand.
Menolly gritted her teeth and focused on not letting her Firelizards come.
“Right then girl, hold your hand so.” Mavi barked. She twisted Menolly’s hand into position and let go of the tendon in her wrist. Menolly watched blood spurt out of it and briefly felt she might faint but turned her attention back to her Firelizards. She watched detachedly as Mavi fastened a tourniquet and laved the wound with a pungent herbal lotion. She then stitched the blood vessel and closed the long slice, all the while complaining. “Such a clumsy girl. Honestly. Well, you should keep some control of it, enough for practical purposes.”
Menolly swallowed harshly. Practical purposes? “Won’t I be able to play again?”
“Play? Your playing days are over, Menolly. Even if your fingers will work after that slice you won’t be playing again.”
She smothered the wound in quantities of salve and was about to swath it in cloth when the door burst open.
Menolly snapped back to attention from where she was sinking into horror.
The woman bustled over. “Alright, let’s see what we have here shall we?”
Mavi stepped back lightly in shock and was pushed aside by this new woman. “What are you doing here?”
“The Dragon Singer was hurt, the dragons sent help. Why do you think there’s always one here?” the woman tutted at her hand. “Honestly Mavi, I expected better work than this from you. Come now Dragon Singer, let me do this properly. If it’s left to heal like that you’ll be lucky to move this hand much at all and it’ll scar quite badly.”
Menolly blinked. “Who are you?”
“My name is Manora, I’m Headwoman at Benden Weyr. Mavi and I know each other from our days at Healer Hall, so forgive me dear if I’m stepping on feet, but the dragons demanded I be here and what the dragons want, the dragons get.” She easily cleaned the wound out further and pulled some pots out of her bag. “Right then Dragon Singer, let’s get this tended to. You’re lucky you missed the tendons.”
Menolly frowned. “Miss? Mavi just told me I wouldn’t be able to move my fingers...” she cast a glance at Mavi who simply scowled and stomped out of the room. Menolly looked back to the woman, Manora. “How did you know?”
“Know what girl? About the tendons?”
“No, I mean, how did you know I was hurt? How do you know who I am? How did you know which room I’m in?”
Manora smiled. “The dragons have been keeping a close eye on you girl, they won’t tell their riders who you are or what you look like because you don’t want them to know, but between you and me I think it’s become something of a game, first dragon whose rider sees you loses. I think sometimes the riders are in on it too. T’gellan brought me here today and I managed to convince him to have a quick word with Yanus, apologise for us popping in so suddenly and all. Now he has no idea where we are and I’m not about to let him just walk into a girl’s room.”
She stepped back and Menolly looked her hand over. She was no healer but even she could see that this was much better than what Mavi had done. “Thank you.”
“Never mind your thanks girl, why did Mavi not heal this properly?”
Menolly looked over at her guitar. “She doesn’t want me to play music.”
Manora frowned. “So she’d disfigure your hand?”
“They really don’t want me to play music. They think I bring disgrace to the Hold.”
Manora scowled. “I will have to have a word with Mavi about that. Never you worry girl, you will always be welcome at Benden Weyr. Now then, I believe I have an entire Weyr’s worth of dragons to calm down.”
Menolly laughed. “Hold on.” She closed her eyes briefly. “Hello?” a chorus of voices bloomed in her mind. “Calm down, all of you. It’s just a scratch and Manora’s healed it up fine.”
“Goodness gracious you really can talk with your mind.” Menolly grinned up at the woman who helped her lie down. “Now, you get some rest. I’ll have my woman come and check on you tomorrow. Don’t let anyone else near that hand. Your Firelizards can stay but make sure not to let them get you too excited.”
Menolly laughed. “With twenty seven? I can’t really help it.”
Manora gaped. “Twenty seven?! Really?” she asked helping Menolly to drink Fellis laced wine.
“Mhmmm. Beauty, Rocky, Diver, Sharp-Shot, Swift,” she broke out into a wide yawn, “Poll, Lazybones, Mimic,” she yawned again, the next few names coming out in unintelligible mumbles before she slipped off into sleep.
When she woke next it was to a girl about her own age grinning down at her. “Twenty seven? Really? I have my hands full with just three.”
Menolly grinned. “Wouldn’t recommend trying it, but it was either that or let them fly out into Thread.”
The girl chuckled and checked on Menolly’s hand. “Well, this is going well. It’ll be a few days before you can use it but you’ll be fine.”
Menolly smiled. “Can I get out of bed?”
The girl barked a laugh. “As long as you don’t hurt yourself further or get any dirt in that wound I don’t care what you do. You can stand, you can get up.”
Menolly smiled. “Thanks all the same.”
“Not a problem. The name’s Mirrim by the way. Now, I’m off back to the Weyr. If you need anything, just call one of the dragons. See ya round, Dragon Singer!”
“It’s Menolly!” Menolly called after her as she rushed from the room, laughing madly. Menolly smiled to herself and stroked Beauty’s head. “Well then my Queen, shall we head off?” Beauty chirped in agreement and Menolly stood up. The rest of the fair popped back to the cave but Beauty stayed on Menolly’s shoulder while she got dressed and headed out of her room.
She’d barely gotten to the end of the corridor when she spotted Mavi coming up the stairs. She stopped a good distance away so as to avoid any chance of getting pushed down them and sent a quick command to her Fair who popped into her room and grabbed her instruments, taking them Between to her cave. “Mavi.”
Mavi stared in shock at Beauty. “Is that...”
“A Queen Firelizard. Her name is Beauty. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going for a walk. Some fresh air would do me good.”
.oOo.
Everyone had been walking on eggshells around Menolly since the accident. Everyone was afraid to anger her in case she summoned the dragons. The kids and some adults quickly got over that fear so they could make a fuss of her Firelizards, though seemed wary of Menolly. Elgion seemed absolutely fascinated by them.
Menolly was again reminded that the Weyrs were looking for Firelizard eggs.
Once her hand was healed completely she set out with a bag of firs and food and spent a week walking and finding nests. She got to the extreme north edge of Keroon Bay and headed back again. She’d found a further five nests, two of which were Golds’. After two days back at Half-Circle she headed south and spent a week looking for eggs finding another four nests, all Greens’.
She camped out in a cave that night and was getting ready to leave that morning when Diver and Bubbles sent a message. They occasionally had competitions on who could dive the deepest in one breath without going Between. They’d found something on the sea bed. It was almost hidden under some rocks but they were easily able to slide it out and dragged it up to the surface. She sent some of the others to help them and soon they had the box on the surface. Menolly had to drag it ashore herself.
She looked around it and moved it about until she found the top edge and the clasp to open it. It was an unusual clasp for sure. She unclipped it and the lid popped up with a hiss. Menolly lifted the lip open and staggered back quickly, letting the stale air breathe for a moment before turning back to the box. She gasped, realising it was full of musical instruments. Some she’d never seen before. There were guitars, tiny guitars with only four strings, a four string instrument with a round drum and a long neck, various metal instruments she’d seen and oh! A silver flute! It was so intricately detailed. Only a master ever had one of these! There were sheets of music too, ones she’d never heard of and on some kind of... she had no idea what it was but they were crisp and white, the black ink easily visible. The line were so straight and precise, it must have been a master’s work! There was also some kind of fabric at the bottom.
She closed the box and looked at her Fair. “Take this back to the cave. I’ll look it over when we get there.” They nodded in unison and all latched onto a different part of the box, vanishing Between with a loud pop. Menolly closed her eyes, waiting for their re-entry and smiled three heartbeats later as she felt them return to this plain. It was an odd feeling, feeling a Firelizard go Between like that. She guessed it was an extremely mild version of what a rider’s dragon going between forever must feel like. Emphases on extremely.
She’d felt like that when Mavi told her that she’d never play again. It felt like a part of her had been taken away, robbed from her forever. Thankfully Manora had arrived and healed it up properly.
Menolly began the walk back home.
She spent a good week in her cave just playing music on the different instruments. There were a bunch of names for instruments above different sheets of music and one piece seemed to be an orchestral composition and Menolly was able to figure out, based on the different sounds each instrument made and pulling them together in that piece, which instrument was which.
She was so excited to see them all and wanted to learn to play all of them before she caught herself. No, these had to go to Harper Hall. They belonged to the Harpers, not to some girl.
Menolly shook her head before looking at the materials. Many of them had clearly been used to wrap the instruments together and seemed to be a whole body outfit of some kind... it was made of a material she’d never seen before.
It was a greyish blue and kind of stretchy. One of them was her size so she put it on to see what it was like. It fit her like a glove and moved easily with her, not restricting her movements at all. She hummed, wondering what it could be. She shrugged, there were a few sets of it in the box so no one would miss this one if she decided to keep it and besides, it was just clothes.
Really old clothes that seemed to date back to the second crossing and had massive amounts of historical value, but clothes none the less.
She closed the box back up and her fair took it out of the cave onto the sand. It was far too big and heavy to try and carry down a cliff so Between it was. She closed her eyes and found a blue dragon circling above Half-Circle. “Hello.”
“Hello Dragon Singer. I am Traath.”
“Hello Traath. Would you mind taking something to Harper Hall for me?”
“Of course, Dragon Singer. Hold on, I come.”
A few moments later Traath landed on the beach and looked curiously down at the box. His rider slid off his back. “So, Dragon Singer, Traath tells me you need us to deliver something?” he looked around curiously, eyeing each of the caves.
“That box contains musical instruments, some I’ve never seen before, and sheets of music I’ve never heard written on a material I’ve never seen. I believe the Masterharper would love to see it.”
The rider eyed the box. “Well, I’ll see to it that it gets there safely then.” Traath reached forwards and grabbed hold of the box, “Please be careful Traath.”
“I will. Don’t worry.”
The rider rolled his eyes and climbed back onto his dragon. “To the Harper Hall then. See you around Dragon Singer!”
A few moments later they were both gone Between. Menolly sighed and again wished that she was born a boy so she could join those instruments at Harper Hall. She climbed out of her cave and set off across the cliff top. There really was no real reason for her to stay here at Half-Circle. She knew her parents wanted her to be of use in the Hold but she couldn’t live without music. At the Weyr she was sure she’d still be able to play, and no one would tell her she couldn’t...
And it would be good to have her fair around with no need to hide them all.
The dragons all like her, and the riders have all said she’d be welcome any time...